By the 7th century Rome was being excoriated throughout the East because of the filioque. It was at that point that the “explanation” that Filioque didn’t mean “and the Son” but rather “through the Son” started to gain currency. There never has been any explanation as to why Rome simply didn’t just say “through the Son”, which of course Latin, with all due respect to +Maximos the Confessor, is quite capable of expressing clearly and directly. I have my own ideas as to why but they are neither here nor there.
I was discussing “filioque” the other day with my son, The Latin Scholar. I'm only being half-facetious. Although only taking high school Latin so far, as an 8th grader, he is already the winner of national Latin awards for high school students. He's good.
Anyway, we were discussing “filioque,” and what he told me is that the “and” used (I think it's the “que” part) is not a “strong” “and.” In Latin, if you really wanted to say “and” and not mean something else, you'd say “et.” You know, like in “Et tu, Brute?”
On the other hand, the "filio" part is in the ablative case. From what my son tells me, the ablative adds additional meaning (this is how I understand what my son tells me). The ablative can add a variety of meanings to the root word, including separation, origin or source, comparison, means, accompaniment, among others. The two most important meanings of the ablative case are "means" and "agency." The actual meaning given is derived by context.
My son tells me that the ablative case of "filio" may be picking up from the preposition "ex" taking the ablative, in which case, one could translate "from the Father and from the Son." However, that's not the only (or even the best) translation.
The ablative case of "filio" may be imparting the meaning meaning "proceeds from the Father and by the means of the Son."
Although my son says you could do away with "and" altogether, and just translate it as "proceeds from the Father by the means of the Son."
In choosing between them, my son points out that if one wished to mean "proceeds from the Father and the Son," one might have added "ex" somehow (his explanation how eludes my simple mind) explicitly before "filioque." That it wasn't added means that the context makes the more likely translation, "proceeds from the Father and by the means of the Son."
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